Free Porpoiseful Intent [Placida Pod 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) by Tymber Dalton

privacy too much to want them under the same roof permanently.
    Especially now.
    Emery rolled onto his side. “You okay, babe?” he sleepily asked.
    “Yeah. Just thinking.”
    Now Emery sounded a little more awake. “About what?”
    “I really wish my parents hadn’t found out about the dolphin stuff. Especially like that.”
    He heard Emery let out a sigh. “I’m sorry I lost my temper at Denby. I was out of line.”
    “No, I get why you did it. I don’t blame you. I probably would have done the same thing. You know, if I had a little sister. And if I was a gay dolphin.”
    “Do you want me to talk to them?”
    “No. You’ve already talked to them. They probably need time to adjust.”
    Emery pulled him tight against his chest. “Then go to sleep and quit worrying about it.”
    He tried to do just that, but sleep mostly eluded him until the early predawn hours. When soft voices in the kitchen awoke him a little after six the next morning, he stumbled out to the kitchen to find his mom and Louise making coffee and talking.
    “Hey,” he said, grabbing a mug and standing by the machine, waiting for enough to brew to pour himself a cup.
    “Good morning, sweetie,” his mom brightly said. She kissed him on the cheek.
    He tried to catch Louise’s eye, but she looked away.
    “You okay, Mom?”
    Helen nodded. “I’m fine, sweetheart. Did you sleep well?”
    Sean’s brow furrowed. “So we’re okay with the dolphin—”
    She let out a too-shrill laugh as she patted him on the arm. “Sean, Sean, Sean. You are my son, and your father and I love you. We only want you to be happy. We’ve already told you we accept Emery and we mean it. I think there’s enough coffee for you now.” She pointed at the carafe.
    This time, Louise did meet his gaze. When she slid one eyebrow up, matching her wry smile, he knew what she was thinking.
    Told you so.
    Okay, so she’s going for ignoring it. Fine with me. “Thanks, Mom. Where’s Dad?”
    “He’s taking a shower. He’ll be down shortly.”
    And that was how the rest of Sean’s morning and afternoon went, with his parents blithely pretending they never saw their son’s partner transform into a dolphin in the Nadels’ pool. Once the other shifters realized that, they eventually relaxed around the Moritas and conversation grew more normal and less forced as the morning progressed.
    By lunchtime, Laura had apparently gone from mentally trying to make Denby’s brain explode to outright ignoring him. Even Emery felt a little sorry for the guy and cut him some slack, talking to him again.
    When the weather cleared enough shortly before dinnertime for everyone to go home, the Moritas went upstairs to pack before dinner. Joseph Nadel gathered the shifters in the kitchen to go over the search operation. “Tonight we’ll meet off Gasparilla Island again, like we have been, at eleven.”
    “Dad, it’s going to be murky as hell,” Emery said. “Not to mention rough. You sure you don’t want to wait until daylight?”
    He shook his head. “We can’t. We’ve lost enough time as it is.”
    Sean didn’t miss how everyone looked at Emery. Apparently there was something else on their minds, and Emery had been unanimously picked to be the one to broach the topic.
    Emery bit the bullet. “If we haven’t found him by now—”
    “I know the odds,” Joseph said, cutting him off as his face darkened. “Believe me, I’m well aware that he’s likely not alive. But he’s one of our pod. I won’t give up without feeling I’ve exhausted every possibility to find him. I’d do it for any one of you or your family members.”
    “Okay,” Emery said, placating him. “We’ll keep looking.”

Chapter Seven
     
    Sean left the Nadels’ house before Emery, following his parents home after dinner to check on their house. During the walk-around, his parents did an excellent job at deflecting and ignoring all his efforts to talk about what had happened.
    As far as they were